Where do young families live? (Colorado Springs, Fountain: lease, mortgages, loan)

[txngrl29]

Hello!

My husband and I recently moved here with our 19 mo. old. We rented a house in a neighborhood with older families. Nothing wrong with it, just were hoping to have more in common with our neighbors. Our lease is almost up and we are looking for a neighborhood that has younger families (30 somethings with kids under 5). Does anyone have any idea where we should start to look? Is there a part of town anyone recommends for this? Anyone love thier neighborhood?

Thanks for your help!

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by txngrl29

Hello!

My husband and I recently moved here with our 19 mo. old. We rented a house in a neighborhood with older families. Nothing wrong with it, just were hoping to have more in common with our neighbors. Our lease is almost up and we are looking for a neighborhood that has younger families (30 somethings with kids under 5). Does anyone have any idea where we should start to look? Is there a part of town anyone recommends for this? Anyone love thier neighborhood?

Thanks for your help!

I think this is in flux right now. Many of the neighborhoods with young families that overbought too-expensive houses with kamikaze loan products will be seeing those young families moving out as they default and move on. And those aren't going to be happy neighbors to have.

So I think the real trick is finding the areas where the age cohort is moving to now, not looking for where they are presently, as I foresee a significant migration occurring as the Great American Homeowership Lie continues to be exposed.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by txngrl29

Hello!

My husband and I recently moved here with our 19 mo. old. We rented a house in a neighborhood with older families. Nothing wrong with it, just were hoping to have more in common with our neighbors. Our lease is almost up and we are looking for a neighborhood that has younger families (30 somethings with kids under 5). Does anyone have any idea where we should start to look? Is there a part of town anyone recommends for this? Anyone love thier neighborhood?

Thanks for your help!

Actually, there is a lot of data already here in C-D to help with that decision.

Go to: //www.city-data.com/city/Colora...-Colorado.html
Then start clicking on each zip code. Up will come a chart showing the age of residents in that zip code. Higher numbers of children will show up on the far left hand side of the graph.

That is rather raw data, so you'll need to refine it a bit by what part of town you want to live in. Click on this thread to see where most of the zip codes are around town. Posts #7 and #8 will help you a lot.
//www.city-data.com/forum/color...hat-areas.html

You can use the data already here to figger it out in 30 minutes or less, and not rely on the mere opinions of others such as I. Drive around some of these areas, talk to people on the street, call or visit a few schools. You can do it!

Best of luck to you!

[froggin4colorado]

All of the new neighborhoods here in Fountain have young families. I see several mommies walking the neighborhoods together with their strollers, yaking up a storm. (Also lots of family bike riders). Over in the Heritage neighborhood, kids monopolize the neighborhoods while they ride their bikes, roller blade, play basketball and dolls. I have even seen lemonade stands on corners. Halloween night, you can barely get a car down the street there are so many trick-or-treaters and decorated houses drawing in crowds.
I also hear this is the case in neighborhoods up in Falcon/Woodmen Hills. Look for a MOPS group too, a lot of support there. When my kids where that age, I was part of a local MOPS group where we met weekly for a variety of activities, did morning walks with our strollers, parties, etc.

[CS-Urbanist]

Down South Bob made a good point with the neighborhoods that are all in flux. The issues with new neighborhoods as they are built today is that they will focus on one price range and therefore most often one age group... The neighborhoods that exist that way today are in the far reaches of the City and probably had or still have signs at the one, maybe two, entrances to their neighborhood that say "From the 200's" or something like that. In Colorado Springs, those are the starter home neighborhoods. When this economy picks up or the resident's five year adjustable mortgages adjust (which ever comes first), the owners will flee faster than the birds in the fall.

What you really want to find is a neighborhood with a mix of housing types, prices, etc. These are the neighborhoods that are going to be the most sustainable. They allow for their residents to move from a "starter home" to a next tier home (let's say "From the 300's") in the same neighborhood. Than to a bigger home, etc. until they can retire back to a smaller home more appropriate for empty nesters. In order to find neighborhoods like these, you have a couple of options. The first is to find an older neighborhood within the City (generally if the neighborhood was built before WWII, it will be a pretty solid established neighborhood). The other option is to look at neighborhoods built with the same mentality in mind or neo-traditional neighborhoods. We have very few of them in Colorado Springs. The only two that really accomplish it in my mind are Spring Creek and Gold Hill Mesa. Honesltly though, Gold Hill Mesa hasn't accomplished it to well yet... Primarily one builder (John Laing Homes) who just closed down their Colorado Offices (still selling in Gold Hill though)...
Spring Creek is where I live and we have all of the demographics to speak of. I have mentioned it in several other posts (in fact others on here are probably getting sick of it, but that's okay). I have two children myself, both under the age of 5, and they have all sorts of friends in the neighborhood. We have some well organized moms here that organize a lot of playdates, etc. for the kids... Email me if you are interested...

[Rangerspouse]

Kids are like cockroaches out here! ha ha No, but seriously there are a LOT of kids out here in Meridian Ranch. We also have two playgrounds in the neighborhood to meet play. Also have hourly care and kids programs at the rec center. We moved here because we heard it was good for kids. It definitely is.

[reginhild]

There are many neighborhoods scattered all about the Springs with large populations of younger kids. I can speak to the newer developments on the North-East side. Cordera and Wolf Ranch have younger families with kids than Pine Creek and Flying Horse. Pine Creek and Flying Horse still have a fair amount of kids although they tend to be a bit older on average. Check out the playgrounds at Cordera - they are tailored toward younger kids with 5 and under play areas and 10 and under play areas.

Of the families on my street in Cordera, only one does not have kids. All the kids are under 10 years of age.

[treedonkey]

Why do people ask questions like: where do young families live?
In houses

What sort of answer are you looking for? I'm sure newer neighborhoods with affordable homes which are close to good schools will have more families with young children. To find out info on school ratings and home prices and demographics, just go up a few levels in this site, as a previous poster suggested, and view the areas recorded data.